ITI CHIEF EXECUTIVE HEADED TO NETFLIX: “Netflix has recruited Dean Garfield, the outgoing CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, to oversee global public policy for the television and movie streaming service, two sources familiar with the matter told POLITICO,” Steven Overly reports. “He will move to Amsterdam for two years to take the position, the sources said. Garfield announced his departure from ITI on Friday after a decade at the helm of the association, which lobbies on issues ranging from consumer privacy to trade to tax reform. The group's members include Apple, IBM, Google, Amazon and Intel, among others. Netflix is not listed as a member of the trade group.” Full story.

— Netflix, which spent $200,000 on lobbying in the third quarter, also has Monument Policy Group on retainer and lobbies on “issues relating to internet competition, internet non-discrimination; broadband caps; [and] intellectual property issues,” according to disclosure filings. ITI, which spent $450,000 on lobbying in the third quarter, has been a vocal opponent of the Trump administration’s retaliatory tariffs on China. The trade association has not yet announced who will replace Garfield.

TODAY’S NOTABLE REGISTRATIONS:Siemens has hired Fierce Government Relations to lobby on infrastructure and “U.S. business advocacy.” Siemens, which spent $910,000 on lobbying in the third quarter, also has Akin Gump, Forbes-Tate, Alpine Group and Jim Massie & Partners on retainer, according to disclosure filings. In other registration news, the California Cannabis Industry Association hired The Liaison Group, to lobby on a range of issues related to marijuana including “building support for, and securing enactment of, bipartisan legislation allowing states to set and enforce their own laws governing cannabis use” and “removing federal restrictions that prohibit medical research involving cannabis.”

ARGENTINA HIRES EDELMAN FOR HELP WITH G-20: Argentina’s government has hired Edelman “to promote the G20 Summit to global media,” according to Justice Department disclosure filing. The Group of 20 summit will take place in Buenos Aires starting Nov. 30. The contract is worth $100,000.

HOW DAVID BERNHARDT DRIVES THE TRUMP AGENDA: The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin is out today with a profile of David Bernhardt, deputy secretary of the Interior Department and an alum of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, who carries a list of 22 former clients to keep track of any potential conflicts of interest. “Over the past two decades, Bernhardt has played key roles in both Interior headquarters and the lobbying community that works to sway the department’s decisions,” Eilperin writes. “He had to recuse himself from ‘particular matters'; directly affecting 26 former clients in order to adhere to the Trump administration’s ethics requirements. The recusals have expired for four of them, allowing Bernhardt to plunge into policymaking that has prompted critics to say he is helping his former clients.

— “As a partner at the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Bernhardt represented clients such as the Westlands Water District, which provides water to California farmers. ... On Aug. 17, two weeks after Bernhardt’s recusal over Westlands Water District expired, [Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke]tasked him with drafting a new plan for managing federal and state water supplies there. Interior and California officials have been tight-lipped about ongoing negotiations, but Bernhardt and his colleagues have made clear they hope to overhaul existing agreements to provide more water to agricultural interests. Even before the recusal period ended, Bernhardt addressed a meeting of the Association of California Water Agencies and met with Interior officials working on the state’s water issues.” Full story.

BIG DONORS SEE PATH TO BEATING TRUMP IN 2020: “As the debate rages among Democrats about how best to position the party to defeat President Trump in 2020, many big donors are signaling early support for expanding and firing up the party’s liberal base rather than backing centrist appeals targeting the Rust Belt,” TheNew York Times’ Kenneth Vogel reports. “Even though middle-of-the-road Democrats helped propel the party to broad gains in the House in the midterm elections this month, especially in coastal suburbs, influential donors signaled in postelection meetings that their priority would be to back progressive appeals in Sun Belt states. … ‘Once we expand the electorate in these places, there will be no turning back,’ said Tory Gavito, the president and co-founder of a new coalition of mostly female donors called Way to Win.

— “She made her case in presentations to major donors at a conference sponsored by WDN Action, the political arm of the Women Donors Network, earlier this month in Seattle and this past week at another put on by the Democracy Alliance, an organization that includes some of the party’s wealthiest and most influential donors. She promoted the impact of her group’s ‘New Southern Strategy’ which included steering $22 million to political efforts in the South and Southwest before the midterms. ‘The concentration of young people, poor people and people of color who used to sit on the sidelines because Democrats have not inspired them will upend the map,’ she said in an interview.” Full story.

FDA TO FACE INDUSTRY BACKLASH AS IT TRIES TO LIMIT SALES OF FLAVORED VAPES TO TEENS: “When the Food and Drug Administration said this past week it will try to limit sales of flavored vapes to teenagers and will start the lengthy process of banning menthol flavored cigarettes, it sounded to many like a firm crackdown,” NBC News’ Maggie Fox reports. “But anti-tobacco advocates know the agency faces an uphill battle against an experienced and determined set of industries. The tobacco companies have decades of practice in fighting off challenges to their marketing practices and even though tobacco is the single biggest killer globally, it remains legal everywhere. “With this week’s announcement, the agency threw the gauntlet down to three large industries: traditional Big Tobacco, a growing e-cigarette industry, and retailers. All can be expected to push back.

— “While anti-smoking advocacy groups all welcomed the FDA’s announcements, many expressed doubt about whether the proposals go far enough and about whether the FDA will be able to pull them off. And the industry rolled out its lawyers immediately. Tobacco giant Reynolds American issued a not-so-veiled threat immediately after FDA released its statements Thursday, saying any proposal to ban menthol cigarettes would ‘be subject to judicial review.’ Murray Garnick, general counsel and executive vice president of Altria Group, noted that the FDA must jump through several hoops to stop the use of menthol in cigarettes and to limit the sale of flavored vaping products...The National Association of Convenience Stores also expressed skepticism about the FDA’s proposal that it can make retailers separate sales of flavored vape products to make them harder for teens to buy. ‘We urge the FDA to share any information they have demonstrating that its proposal will improve age verification on e-cigarette sales,’ the group’s Lyle Beckwith said.” Full story.

NEW LOBBYING TERMINATIONS

About The Author

Marianne LeVine is a reporter at POLITICO who covers lobbying and co- authors POLITICO Influence. Prior to her stint on the lobbying beat, Marianne covered labor policy for POLITICO Pro, writing about regulations related to overtime pay, retirement advice and occupational health and safety. Her reporting in 2016 about domestic abuse allegations against President Donald Trump's first nominee for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, was a key part of the debate surrounding his nomination, which he ultimately withdrew. Prior to working at POLITICO, Marianne was an intern in the Los Angeles Times' Washington, D.C. bureau.

She graduated from Stanford undergrad in 2013, with degrees in International Relations and French and completed Stanford's Graduate Program in Journalism in 2014.

About The Author

Theodoric Meyer covers lobbying for POLITICO and writes the POLITICO Influence newsletter. He previously covered the 2016 campaign for POLITICO and worked as a reporting fellow for ProPublica in New York. He was a lead reporter on ProPublica’s “After the Flood” series on the federal government’s troubled flood insurance program, which won the Deadline Club Award for Local Reporting. He’s a graduate of McGill University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.